BOOKMAKERS IN FRANCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 61, 9 September 1905, Page 14

BOOKMAKERS IN FRANCE.

THEIR SUPPRESSION DECREEDThe bookmakers, who have existed^ on sufferance for some time, were to be suppressed on all French racecourses on Ist September. The finst blow was struck, says the London Standard, when the Government decided that as there was no way of preventing the public from gambling en horse races, the next best thing to do was to provide the means for them to do it in the least objectionable manner, and the pan mntuel came into'existence. Betting was legalised in places under control, and paid its toll to the State in the shape of a hard and fast percentage, which is spent in the relief of the poor.' The various racecourse and horse breeding societies also benefit by 4 per cent.' of the takings of the betting machine. The bookmakers lingered on after the 1 pari mutuel had taken the bulk of their' customers, making a less ample living out of fastidious people who disliked being jostled by the crowd round the 'betting' 'booths. , But they were confined to' one part of the course, the paddock. They were not allowed to shout the odds or to make cash transactions. Under these conditions the bookmaker degenerated from a burly red-faced, brass-lunged giant into a meek and insignificant person, quiet voiced and rather furtive eyed, who plied his trade in an obscure corner. . , "Thfe 'comparative' quietness of French .japecourees^. Js the result of silencing the bookmaker, is one of' the first things that strike an English visitor. He misses familiar roar from .the ring, the conspicuous clothes, the big umbrellas, and the rest of the stock iD trade of the English bookmaker. Most of that stage setting disappeared long ago in France, and now the remnants are to follow.